The Trapped Soccer Team: What Freedom Really Means

Twelve boys and their soccer coach went missing in a northern Thailand cave on June 23. The Tham Luang Nang Non cave system is a local tourist attraction but can flood severely during the rainy season. The boys and their coach became stranded in the dark tunnels by a sudden and continuous downpour.

Divers found them alive Monday evening. The video of their discovery made headlines around the world. But their saga is far from over.

The Wild Boar soccer team and its coach are trapped 1.2 miles into the cave, somewhere between eight hundred meters and one kilometer (0.6 miles) below the surface. They were found huddled together on a small incline, surrounded by water in a pitch-black chamber.

Huge pumps are now running to drain the cave complex so the boys can be rescued. However, Thailand is in the midst of its monsoon season. Heavy rains could make it impossible for the team to hike to safety.

Bringing the team out the way their rescuers went in is especially perilous. Cave diving is dangerous even for experienced divers. The safest option could be to leave the boys in place until water levels drop or a new entrance is discovered. However, if water levels rise too high, they could threaten the boys where they are.

Officials stated this morning that they will not attempt to move the boys before Thursday. They are working to set up phone lines inside the cave so the boys can talk to their parents.

Two weeks ago, the boys and their coach may have taken their freedom for granted. I doubt they will ever do so again.

Thomas Jefferson’s last public letter

The year was 1826, and America’s fiftieth Independence Day was approaching.

Roger Chew Weightman, the mayor of Washington, planned a great celebration. He invited the three surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence–Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Charles Carroll of Maryland–as well as former presidents James Madison and James Monroe.

None could attend, due to health issues and advancing age. However, on June 24, 1826, Jefferson wrote the mayor what became his last public letter. (He wrote two personal notes a day later.) In it, he defined what Independence Day is all about (punctuation and capitalization are his):

“may [the Declaration] be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self-government.”

According to Jefferson, “that form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. all eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. the general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view. the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred.”

He then offered his Independence Day hope: “let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”

Freedom is not free

“FREEDOM IS NOT FREE” is engraved on the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. Those who do not have freedom and those who defend it know that it’s so. The rest of us must “forever refresh our recollection of these rights” that we might embrace “an undiminished devotion to them.”

What will you do today to remember the Founders whose courage and sacrifice birthed our freedom? How will you remember those who fought and died that our nation might live and honor those who risk their lives for us today?

As you celebrate this day with family and friends, take a moment to thank God for our nation and our freedom. And pray for all Americans to experience the true freedom we have found in Christ.

The Bible states: “The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). Jesus promised: “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).

True independence requires dependence on God

How can Americans find the freedom only Christ can give?

Noah Webster, a revolutionary soldier later known as the “Schoolmaster to America,” wrote a History of the United States in 1832. In it, he boldly stated: “The religion which has introduced civil liberty, is the religion of Christ and his apostles, which enjoins humility, piety and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free constitutions of government.”

In other words, true independence requires dependence on God.

Libraries and schools across our country display Jesus’ familiar promise: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). But such displays omit his previous words: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples” (v. 31). Only then can we know the truth and be set free by it.

Will you abide in Jesus’ word today?

Photo: Rescuers install a water pump inside Tham Luang Nang Non cave on June 28, 2018 in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Rescuers battle heavy rain in northern Thailand as they continued the search for 12 boys and their soccer coach who have been missing in Tham Luang Nang Non cave since Saturday night after monsoon rains blocked the main entrance. Teams of Navy SEAL divers worked their way through submerged passageways in the sprawling underground caverns as senior Thai government officials warned on Wednesday that time is running out and the search intensifies for the young soccer team, aged between 11 to 16, and their their 25-year-old coach, with soldiers and park rangers seeking other entry points into the cave system.

Photo courtesy: Linh Pham/Getty Images

Publication date: July 5, 2018

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